#125: Mary Anne in the Middle
Mary Anne in the middle?! Even though she’s so decisive and confident?! LOL. In this book, Mary Anne is caught between two eleven-year-olds: Mallory and Jessi.
As you may recall, Mallory has been having a shitty and torturous experience at Stoneybrook Middle School, especially since being crowned Spaz Girl. She’s convinced her parents to let her look into boarding schools, and she’s hoping to get accepted (and get a scholarship) to Riverbend Hall in Massachusetts. Of course, she does get accepted and she obviously jumps at the chance to attend. And everyone’s super happy for her and celebrates, right? FUCKING NOPE.
Jessi is pissed at the prospect of losing her best friend, so she does not take Mallory’s news kindly. She says (in front of all the Pike kids) that Mallory is abandoning them, and they get pissed at Mallory too. So now, by solving her school problem, Mallory has a whole new friends-and-family problem. Also, who’s building a fireplace? Get ready, because Kristy will surely shit a brick at the prospect of having to once again replace a BSC member. Jessi gets annoyed that Mary Anne found out about Mallory’s decision before her, and Jessi and Mallory both get annoyed when Mary Anne tries to Parent Trap them
Jessi has a big sleepover with the BSC and some of her friends from Dance NY, and when her Dance NY friends are talking to Mallory about how cool it will be at boarding school and how easy it will be to make new friends, Jessi’s like, “UM. WAIT. STOP.” And eventually it gets too awkward and Mallory leaves. Once again Mary Anne is blamed, because she made Mallory come to the sleepover. Mary Anne is also 100% projecting her past trauma about Dawn leaving onto the Jessi/Mallory situation. At some point she has to be like, “MALLORY, THE WAY JESSI IS ACTING IS EXACTLY HOW YOU ACTED WHEN SHE DID DANCE NY.”
Eventually Mary Anne gets Mallory and Jessi over to her house to hash it out and they make up. And then the BSC holds a We Love Mallory Day (because OF COURSE THEY DO) which includes cameos from author Henrietta Hayes, Ben Hobart, etc. And at the end Jessi surprises Mallory with tickets to the Stamford CATS performance. THAT IS SO MALLORY.
Will she be chosen at Riverbend Hall’s Jellicle Ball?! Stay tuned…
